W. Tennis Resumes Play at Marliss Gruver Fall Invite
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The University of Miami women’s tennis team will continue its fall slate this weekend at the Marliss Gruver Fall Invitational.
Held at the Yarbrough Tennis Center in Auburn, Ala., the tournament is named for Auburn’s former director of operations, Marliss Gruver, who passed away last year after a battle with melanoma.
Six Hurricanes will take part in the event, which features 32 players from seven schools. The other schools in the competition are Auburn, Arkansas, Georgia State, Kansas, Oklahoma and Ole Miss.
Action runs Friday through Sunday, with matches beginning at 10 a.m. ET each day. Friday will feature one round of singles and one round of doubles, while Saturday’s slate includes the final two rounds of doubles and one round of singles. Sunday will just be the final round of singles play.
Barring a wild card or at-large selection to another ITA tournament, this will serve as the final collegiate tournament of the fall for junior Yuna Ito, senior Ana Madcur, freshman Lucia Marzal Martinez, senior Daniella Roldan and sophomore Ulyana Shirokova. Miami’s other competitor, junior Estela Perez-Somarriba, will take part in the Oracle ITA National Fall Championships Nov. 7-11 in Surprise, Ariz.
The No. 51-ranked pair of Perez-Somarriba and Roldan takes on Auburn’s Sophia Graver and Taylor Russo in Flight No. 1. Ito and Shirokova face the draw’s top seed, No. 31 Alexa Bortles and Isolde de Jong of Ole Miss in their first-round match.
Additionally, Madcur and Marzal Martinez, seeded second in Flight No. 2, meet Oklahoma’s Kianah Motosono and Laura Rico-Garcia.
Ranked third and seeded first in Flight No. 1, Perez-Somarriba is set to take on Martina Capurro of Oklahoma in the opening round of singles play.
In Flight No. 2, top-seeded Marzal Martinez faces Kansas’ Plobrung Plipuech and Roldan squares off with Arkansas’ Lauren Alter.
Shirokova is set to play Georgia State’s Damira Muminovic in Flight No. 3. Meanwhile, in Flight No. 4, Ito, seeded second, meets Arkansas’ Shwetha Prabakar and Madcur takes on Lara Vovk of Georgia State.
Start times for singles matches are to be determined. For more information on the Marliss Gruver Fall Invitational, visit the official website HERE.
To keep up with the University of Miami women’s tennis team on social media, follow @CanesWTennis on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
FRIDAY SCHEDULE
Doubles Flight No. 1 – Quarterfinals
10 a.m. ET: No. 51 Estela Perez-Somarriba/Daniella Roldan (UM) vs. Sophia Graver/Taylor Russo (AU)
10 a.m. ET: Yuna Ito/Ulyana Shirokova (UM) vs. No. 31 [1] Alexa Bortles/Isolde de Jong (OM)
Doubles Flight No. 2 – Quarterfinals
10 a.m. ET: [2] Ana Madcur/Lucia Marzal Martinez (UM) vs. Kianah Motosono/Laura Rico-Garcia (OU)
Singles Flight No. 1 – Quarterfinals
TBD: No. 3 [1] Estela Perez-Somarriba (UM) vs. Martina Capurro (OU)
Singles Flight No. 2 – Quarterfinals
TBD: [1] Lucia Marzal Martinez (UM) vs. Plobrung Plipuech (KU)
TBD: Daniella Roldan (UM) vs. Lauren Alter (AR)
Singles Flight No. 3 – Quarterfinals
TBD: Ulyana Shirokova (UM) vs. Damira Muminovic (GAST)
Singles Flight No. 4 – Quarterfinals
TBD: [2] Yuna Ito (UM) vs. Shwetha Prabakar (AR)
TBD: Ana Madcur (UM) vs. Lara Vovk (GAST)
